Indian students deferring foreign education plan

Shreya Biswas, ET BureauJan 21, 2009, 06.51am IST

NEW DELHI: Economic slowdown has dealt a blow to Indian students' foreign education dreams. Scores of students, who were preparing to go abroad for higher studies, are deferring their plans due to global recession , tapering financial assistance and a bleak job market.

Analysts say the number of students taking the two tests mandatory for admission in foreign universities—Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) for courses in management and Graduate Record Examination (GRE) for courses in engineering, humanities and social sciences—is dwindling.

While GRE applicants for 2008 are expected to come down to 50,000 from 74,000 last year, GMAT takers opting for institutes abroad, is also likely to show a sharp decline.

IMS, which claims to have onethird market share in the GMAT preparatory, predicts the number of fresh GMAT takers to be around 16,500 from India this year. Of 4,000 IMS students, who have taken GMAT till now, only 1,200 have applied for institutes abroad compared to 1,519 last year.

The academic session starts in August-September in most Western countries and the deadline for taking the tests is April-May for admissions into such institutes.

"The figures are a strong indication of the trend how the year is likely to proceed," says IMS international education head Rajat Ghosh Chowdhury. While the overall number for GMAT takers are expected to go up this year to 22,000, only 16,500 would be fresh applicants .

And majority of these examinees would be for one-year MBA in India, not overseas universities, says IMS. That means only those students, who manage to get scholarships and few others would be able to study abroad.